6 Surprising Things Behind Ugg Boots' Massive Success

Ugg boots can now be found
in any mall across the country, but they started as a hard sell
to Americans.Wikimedia
Commons

No matter how great your idea is, starting a new business is hard
work.

No one knows this better than
Brian Smith,
founder of Ugg Australia and author of "The
Birth Of A Brand," who worked tirelessly for years to make
the now ubiquitous sheepskin boot part of American
culture.

Though Uggs can be found in
every mall in America these days, they didn't start out as a hit.
After ordering his first samples in 1979, Smith spent months
traveling door to door pitching the boots to surf shops and
selling them out of a van at surf competitions.

By the mid '80s, the trend
caught on, elevating Smith's idea from a small business to a
multimillion-dollar company. He ended up selling the business to
footwear company Deckers in 1995 for
an estimated $14.6 million, but Ugg is still thriving and can
still be found at most major retailers today.

Smith recently shared some of
his business insights at the 2014 Small Business
Summit and in an interview with Business Insider. Smith says
these six key characteristics define successful
entrepreneurs.

They're ignorant.

Smith ran into several major obstacles while
building Ugg, including the fact that it was only popular in the
winter and that Americans didn't understand the durability of
sheepskin in any weather, making it a hard sell as a winter shoe.
But his lack of prior knowledge is what kept him going. "Had I
known about all these barriers and roadblocks, I would have given
up," he says. "The ignorance is what made it happen." Going in
blind forces entrepreneurs to believe in their product no matter
what hardships they come up against.

They have perseverance.

If you truly believe in an idea — and you stick
with it — eventually other people will believe in it, too.
"Perseverance is what you need because there's a tipping point,
and if you can make it to that period, everything else sort of
flows," Smith says.

When Uggs didn't catch on at
first, Smith had an easy out: He could sell off his remaining
inventory and cut his losses. Instead, he committed himself,
personally pitching Uggs to surf shops and working odd jobs
during the off-season to keep himself afloat. Soon enough, he
reached the tipping point, and Ugg caught on as a national
brand.

They know their
audience.

In an effort to appeal to the same wide audience
that department stores commanded, Smith created glamorous
magazine advertisements featuring models frolicking in Uggs.
However, after several months, the ads had failed to gain
traction, so Smith asked his surf buddies for feedback. Their
thoughts: "Those ads are so fake! Those models can't surf!" Smith
realized his ads weren't appealing to his core audience, and he
started featuring up-and-coming surfers in the boots, using
pictures he took himself for the ads. Within two months, sales
climbed from $30,000 to $400,000.

They start small.

Getting as many people as possible to see and
buy your product is a logical way to gain success. However, it's
impossible to immediately appeal to a mainstream market — you
have to start with a small audience and grow outward from
there.

Smith started out pedaling his
boots to major retailers, such as Nordstrom, in hopes of reaching
a mainstream audience. However, he failed to realize that he
needed to get them in the smaller, niche surf shops first
since his product was originally targeted specifically at
surfers. Once the shoes started gaining popularity with an
authentic surfer audience, they started to catch on with those
outside the surf crowd as well.

Uggs didn't start out as
high fashion, they had to work their way up from niche surf
shops.Tobias
Schwarz/Reuters

They love what they do.

Above all else, Smith believes a genuine passion
for the work is what makes an entrepreneur successful. "If you
love it, no matter what happens, you'll get through it," he says.
"You have to really love what you're doing and know that
there's a potential for
it. That's what keeps you true to the mission."

In the mid '80s, Smith brought on
new investors, with each holding equal shares of the company.
Smith soon realized that with his now reduced 25% equity stake,
he had lost control of the business. Still, he stuck
with Ugg, and began working as a salesman, slowly earning more
and more through commission and eventually returning to the
corporate level. Because he truly believed in his product, he was
willing to do whatever it took to make the company
successful.

They know when to step
back.

Smith's No. 1 rule for entrepreneurs is to love
what you do, which means stepping back when it comes to the tasks
that remove the joy from a project. Yes, every entrepreneur will
be faced with unglamorous tasks they don't want to take care of,
but it's important to know the difference between little
annoyances and major responsibilities. For Smith, this meant
delegating administrative work and focusing on his strengths in
sales.

Instead of forcing himself to
fill a role he's not meant for, he passes it on. Even though it
might be difficult to hand off part of your pet project to
someone else, successful entrepreneurs recognize when they aren't
the best person for the job and pass it on to whoever that may
be.